First Nations

Commissioner Quits Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry

While the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls continues to lose high-level staff and appears in disarray, Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs is urging everyone to not lose hope in the process.

July 1, 2017

Saskatchewan lawyer Marilyn Poitras issued her resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. She is the first commissioner to resign from the inquiry.

In the letter, Poitras said she is “unable to perform my duties as a commissioner with the process designed in its current structure.”

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told Ottawa media that she has met with the commission, reviewed their path forward and has faith in what they have planned. “They really do have the vision, the values, the tools and the plan to get this work done,” Bennett said.

She added there is “no question that we all agree that the communication has been an issue,” and they must do a better job telling families about their plan and vision. But she believes they will.

May 16, 2017

However, not everyone feels as though the inquiry, in its current form, will be able to do all that is hoped. Many families and Indigenous leaders have openly questioned the inquiry’s direction, its methods and chastised it for not involving more grassroots activists — who have been fighting for an inquiry for years. They feel the inquiry has lost its way and are demanding it begin again.

Poitras’ resignation follows a press conference held last Thursday by the inquiry’s Chief Commissioner Marion Buller. Buller gave an update on the probe’s summer progress after several controversies including high-profile resignations. On June 30, executive director Michèle Moreau quit the inquiry. Moreau cited “personal reasons” for her resignation.

June 3, 2015

Buller has defended the inquiry and its progress to date, saying she will meet all the milestones including an interim report in November even though only a handful of families have spoken at public hearings.

Buller has said staff leaving the inquiry have all done so for “personal reasons” and that some had dream job offers. The inquiry has five commissioners who are mandated to travel the country, hearing the testimonies of families, then making recommendations on how to protect vulnerable Indigenous women and girls. An RCMP report in 2014 indicated there are 1,181 Indigenous women and girls who have been killed violently or have disappeared. Many believe that number is low.(Source: Toronto Star)

Some people don’t want to celebrate Canada 150, and that’s okay

As Canada gets set to blow out candles representing 150 years of being a nation some very loud voices are trying to drown out some of the cheering and hoots of celebration. Indigenous peoples are marking July 1 as a day to remind maple leaf flag waving people that it is in fact a day to celebrate colonialism, institutional racism, broken treaties, and genocide of first nations. It has added a very interesting twist and pause for thought on a usually sanguine and relaxing Summer holiday in Canada. It contrasts greatly with the comparatively optimistic and boosterish Canada we know from the hued and grainy films and memories of Canada’s centennial year. Not everyone in Canada is celebrating Canada150, and that’s okay.

June 27, 2017

Like many 48 year olds and many generations before and after me I’m a student of school taught Canadian history through elementary and into university levels. It has served as a launch pad to explore and read up on topics not covered in deep detail in those courses. History knowledge lends itself to appreciate all kinds of other facets of life from food to music, sports, arts & entertainment, science to geography, and the peoples who populate this planet. There are evolving and new interpretations of history and culture being revealed which shouldn’t be resisted, but indeed, be embraced.

As a white middle aged male I admit to bristling somewhat to Canada150 celebrations being referred to as “Colonialism150.” It falls like a wet rag on this annual occasion, made more significant because it’s called sesquicentennial, and forces one to look at the narratives we’ve understood to have built a country, mixed with national pride, and enforced by maple leaves on everything we consume, and the unending smugness we have towards our so called “ally” to the south. It’s intended to make people think beyond the celebratory images of Prime Ministers, and great hockey goals, and unique national food products. To step into the shoes of recent immigrants to Canada, with varied interpretations of a nation outside of what Stephen Harper once infamously dubbed “old-stock” Canadians.

September 22, 2015

Colonialism150 should make us all reflect on the hardships faced by our own ancestors, whether indigenous and non-ingenous, and put the struggles they faced into the perspective of other humans into a present, and future context. My Scottish ancestors were chased around their island sanctuary of Lewis by their English overlords, as my English ancestors from my other set of genes were scraping enough farthings together to flee from soot choked polluted Croydon in the 1840s to emigrate to Upper Canada. They were hardly “colonists” in the sense of rich land owners ordering natives around upon their arrival. As for my Newfoundland and Irish ancestors from the 2 other branches of my genealogy, just trust me that it wasn’t exactly a cakewalk for them either when they arrived on these shores in the early part of the 1800’s.

The Canada150 is a celebration of changing times. We look back to that innocent and optimistic age of 1967, when Canada was a country still populated by the veterans of both world wars, when peacekeeping was set in motion, universal healthcare and CPP were brought in, Expo67 and the swinging sixties were at its height. The elder Trudeau was on the verge of becoming Prime Minister at the time. Contrast that time with the era Trudeau the younger and Canada Day 50 years later has become a celebration of progressiveness by acknowledging institutional oppression of the past, including the one-time progressive concept of placing indigenous children in residential schools. Great strides have gone to undoing the evils suffered by first nations in recent years, but also of multicultural groups, LGBT, women, children, to the physically and mentally challenged – and we all know much more still has to be done. For the case of indigenous people much has been promised by the current Federal government but accommodation has to go beyond what respected First Nations activist Roberta Jamieson calls “gesture politics“, as in Justin Trudeau’s asinine decision to turn the colonial architecture of the old U.S. Embassy across from the Parliament Bldgs into an aboriginal something-or-ever instead of a National Portrait Gallery.

June 12, 2008

Perhaps the most significant aspect for Canada in the past 50 years was the reconciliation/accommodation of Quebec and French speaking minorities across Canada. Think back to the Quiet Revolution of the 60s, which simmered before the FLQ crisis of the early 70s, giving rise to the Parti Québécois, Bill 101, two referenda on separation, the Bloc Québécois, district society, a lot of hollering over borders, some flag burnings, standoffs, and much eye rolling – there are still on going problems, as there always will be, but I think, with a lot of overtures handed to a province which had been overlooked, Quebec in Canada is a lot better off in 2017 than it was in 1967, and that is something to celebrate.

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In the 50 years leading to this country’s bicentennial I’m betting the effort made to linguistic minorities since 1967 will be extended to indigenous peoples going forward. That hope is worth waving a Canadian flag about, with the acknowledgement that many indigenous peoples are not celebrating on July 1, and more has to be done to reconcile with the first nations people of the nation we’ve been calling “Canada” for 150 years. Cheer for the accomplishments of a nation born in 1867, but respect the original people of that very land. – Graeme MacKay

Liberals face flood of outrage in B.C. after approval of Trans Mountain pipeline

The federal cabinet’s decision to approve Kinder Morgan Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has prompted a flood of outrage and promises of protests, court challenges and civil disobedience in British Columbia.

October 13, 2016

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was “profoundly disappointed,” calling the decision a “big step backwards” for Canada’s environment and economy.

“I — along with the tens of thousands of residents, local First Nations, and other Metro Vancouver cities who told the federal government a resounding ‘no’ to this project — will keep speaking out against this pipeline expansion that doesn’t make sense for our economic or environmental future.”

September 26, 2015

The $6.8-billion project would triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline, from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels a day, and would add 980 kilometres of new pipe along the route from near Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.

It would also increase the number of tankers leaving Vancouver-area waters seven-fold, from five to 34 per month, prompting fierce opposition from local mayors and First Nations who say any risk of a diluted-bitumen spill is unacceptable.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the project would be approved with 157 conditions at a news conference Tuesday. He said he expects the decision to be “bitterly disputed” by a number of people across the country, but said the project is in Canada’s best interests. (Source: Toronto Star)

Inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women

Many First Nations leaders and advocates in B.C. distrust the framework for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada — and demand the body been given enough scope to look at how policing has played into deaths.

The long-awaited Canada-wide look at issues that led to so many tragedies was questioned, especially by family members who lost loved ones.

Lorelei Williams held a feather as she talked about her aunts and cousins. Two were lost to serial killers. One family member was raped and survived. Another was pushed out a Downtown Eastside window.

There is a litany of pain and trauma that makes Williams suspicious of the inquiry, despite promises that it will offer change.

“I have more questions than answers. I don’t know if I am ready to embrace this inquiry,” said Williams.

She wants the inquiry to look at policing and police accountability because she believes racism and indifference to Indigenous women by some officers has made it difficult to get anybody to take the search for missing family members seriously. She says she too was left to walk alone along a highway when she was 17 years old, stranded after being dismissed by 911 when she called for help.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said the framework for the inquiry is flawed, and needs more funding or protections in writing that ensure recommendations will be acted on, instead of ignored.

He wants the inquiry’s scope to include a hard look at the issues of racism and sexism in the RCMP, saying racist attitudes on police forces have contributed to Indigenous deaths for decades.

“This is about accountability. Full stop. We need to ensure we do not blow this opportunity,” said Phillip.

“The issue …is an indelible black mark on the human rights record of Canada. We are not sitting here cheerleading.” (Source: CBC News)

Away from the desk for a while, Returning Wednesday, July 13.

It’s a good time to be Canadian.

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Why? Because it’s Summer; School’s out, stores are closed, the legislatures have adjourned, the b-teams are running the media outlets, and rest, leisure, and frivolity are in high gear. This is my favourite time of the year: Long days, blue skies, warm days, movie nights, cold beer, bbq’d meat, trips to places you’ve never been, escapes to familiar destinations just for nostalgia sake, gathering with family and friends.